Prioritise agric value chains – AFAN president

Farmers are complaining that they have not gotten farm inputs from the federal government under the GES programme this year. What are you doing to assist them? Well, through the GES, I believe nothing has gone to the farmers this year, but most of the states are distributing fertilizers to their farmers. If the GES […]

Farmers are complaining that they have not gotten farm inputs from the federal government under the GES programme this year. What are you doing to assist them?
Well, through the GES, I believe nothing has gone to the farmers this year, but most of the states are distributing fertilizers to their farmers. If the GES had been expanded to reach every farmer, they would have been agitating for it. From the records that were given out by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, about 14.5 million farmers were captured. But you know we have farmers in excess of that in Nigeria. This means that they captured political farmers. AFAN was not involved.
Are the suppliers of the farm inputs businessmen or cronies? If they were businessmen, they would have come forward looking for the farmers to buy inputs from them because the GES has already provided a platform. So, if the government is going to continue that policy, they need to look at it again to make it open and work properly.
The GES, to me, is a good policy, but it should be segregated. It doesn’t make sense to give two bags of fertilizer and 12.5kg of seeds to every farmer. Farmers’ needs should be assessed. With the concern of this government for agriculture, I believe the policy would be sustained.
Concerns are being raised about the irregular rainfall condition this year, especially in the northern part of the country, what impact do you think it would make on crop harvest?
We were aware of it; hence farmers planted hi-breed seeds that mature early. The rains were late to come, but now rains are falling everywhere. This situation has happened before. But we hope the rains would continue so that we have a bumper harvest. There is existing poverty, and if we have poor harvest it will worsen the situation.
Do you think the present administration can restore the glory of agriculture?
The present administration has stated very clearly that it would restore the dignity of agriculture. We are very confident in President Muhammadu Buhari that he will do that because the signs are there for everybody to see. I advise the president to get a minister that has passion for agriculture and accommodates the views of other stakeholders so that the sector can be properly positioned. The agricultural value chains should be prioritised for proper development of various crops and livestock across the country.